Why Parents Are Turning to a Controversial Treatment for Food Allergies

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Why Parents Are Turning to a Controversial Treatment for Food Allergies

For families with food allergies, micro-managing daily life to avoid accidentally consuming the wrong food can be a huge burden. They scour labels. They avoid restaurants. They ban their kids from birthday parties, or refuse to enter sports stadiums, worrying that peanut shells littering the ground could trigger life-ending anaphylaxis.
The resulting angst has driven some families and physicians to try a therapy that has done well in early studies but has unclear long-term effects and is not yet approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
...Instead of injecting allergens through the skin, OIT involves consuming a bit of the forbidden food each day, at gradually increasing doses, so the immune system can learn to put up less of a fight.

Re: Why Parents Are Turning to a Controversial Treatment for Food Allergies

We live in fear that my granddaughter will eat or come in contact with something that will trigger her very serious peanut allergy. The OIT method has existed for a while, but it's hard to find a certified allergist who will do it. Australian researchers from the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute conducted a very successful clinical trial several years ago, discovering the probiotic, Lactobacillus rhamnosus, given to children along with peanut protein corrected the problem. At the end of the 18 month trial, more than 80% of the children were able to eat foods containing peanuts.

Re: Why Parents Are Turning to a Controversial Treatment for Food Allergies

Every allergist in the U.S. is not jumping onto this because there's more money in prescribing an EpiPen than prescribing probiotics. Probiotics may cure you. An EpiPen just gets you from one allergic reaction to another. Speaking of EpiPens...there's been a yearlong shortage and price increases that now range between $650 -$700 for a 2-pack of EpiPen. Other alternatives exist, like Auvi-Q and Symjepi, but they're almost as costly and parents, school officials, and others have been trained on EpiPen, which has been on the market for 30 years. It is shameful that Pfizer and Mylan would restrict the availability of a critical, lifesaving medication.

Re: Why Parents Are Turning to a Controversial Treatment for Food Allergies

I thought that "Pharma Bro" was still in prison for his price hiking, and I was right.

“Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli has been removed from the federal prison in Fort Dix, New Jersey, after claims that the convicted fraudster was running his pharmaceuticals firm Phoenixus AG while locked up with the help of a contraband cell phone.

Shkreli, whose firm gained him infamy for hiking the price of the drug Daraprim by more than 5,000 percent, now is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn and will be transferred to the federal prison in Allenwood, Pennsylvania, his lawyer said.

He was convicted in 2017 of defrauding investors in two hedge funds he ran, and conspiring to manipulate shares in another drug company, Retrophin. A judge revoked his release bond after his trial because of his offer of a $5,000 bounty on Facebook for anyone who could give him a lock of Hillary Clinton’s hair.

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